CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

CHAPTER 29

JULIA POV:

Julia couldn't get the unsettling pictures out of her mind in the hours following the altercation with Caleb and his friends. Lila's stubborn yet resigned emerald stare was burnt onto the backs of her eyelids, mocking her with its quiet resolve in the face of such obvious brutality.

Julia's mind kept going back to the enigmatic, selectively mute girl as she worked on her algebra homework that night. What underlying past could generate such hostility and scorn among Caleb's circle, to the point where they felt justified in harassing Lila merely for being in their presence?

The entire situation smelled of ugliness and cruelty, which turned Julia off. Perhaps because it reflected an insidious kernel of ugliness she'd always suspected lurked beneath Caleb's charming exterior but had chosen to ignore in favor of sibling loyalty.

Julia felt her blinkers had been destroyed after seeing his explosive, aggressive side firsthand. The sibling she idolized as a child had an